If you've seen or are going to see The Rolling Stones on their Tour '24, here's a few facts and figures:
- They rehearsed upwards of 70 songs for four weeks.
- The stage is 180 feet wide by 65 feet deep and weighs 485,072 pounds.
- There are close to 2300 square feet of high-resolution LED screens, rising as high as 46 feet.
- There is a crew of 200, 14 of whom handle video, including six camera operators.
- The visuals and lights are customized to each song.
Ray Winkler, CEO and design director at Stufish Entertainment Architects, tells Rolling Stone, “The stage is embellished by all of the digital media around them, and that, by default, makes it very contemporary. It’s very clean-edged. It’s not about the physical presence of a stage set but the continuing, evolving and developing imagery that you see on the screens."
And Patrick Woodroffe, creative director and lighting designer, adds, "I never want it to look too slick. This band is really authentic. Audiences will always be able to spot whether a performance is the real thing or not. It may be the soundtrack for the lives of the people in the audience, but it’s also the soundtrack of the Stones’ lives. They gift us their music, and that’s the real embrace. That’s the real thing.”
And Mick Jagger is very involved in the stage design.
The Stones are four shows into the tour with the fifth one set for this Wednesday at Lumen Field in Seattle.
The tour runs through July 17th in Santa Clara, California.